Ubuntu 13.04 Will Run on the Google Nexus 7 Tablet

Jono Bacon announced yesterday, October 26th, on his personal blog that the upcoming Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) operating system will support the Nexus 7 tablet from Google.

The Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 13.04 will start next Monday, on October 29th and the development team is preparing to give attendees a demonstration of Ubuntu OS on the Google Nexus 7 tablet.

“A core goal for Ubuntu 13.04 is to get Ubuntu running on a Nexus 7 tablet. To be clear, this is not going to be a tablet Unity interface running on the 8/16GB Nexus 7,” said Jono Bacon on his blog.

“But instead will focus on getting the current Ubuntu Desktop running on the Nexus so that we can ensure pieces such as the kernel, power management and other related areas are working effectively on a tablet device.” he continued.

However, the good news is that Canonical already tested the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) and Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) releases on Nexus 7, and they provide a native installer for it, called Ubuntu Nexus 7 Desktop Installer, with step by step installation instructions (with screenshots).

Ubuntu on Nexus 7 - Image courtesy of Jono Bacon

Unfortunately, we don’t have a Google Nexus 7 tablet so we can't test the Ubuntu operating system on it, but from the Ubuntu Wiki page above it looks like the installation is pretty simple. Basically you’ll have to add the PPA for the installer, unlock your tablet, and install Ubuntu on Nexus 7.

If you don’t have a Nexus 7 tablet from Google and you want to buy one, just in case you would like to install Ubuntu on it, please visit its official website.

Don’t forget to visit our website next week, as we will cover the entire Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 13.04 event and give you all the latest news from the Canonical world.